Should I Call 911 When My Friends Start Flipping Out On Marijuana?

Mike Adams
, ContributorI cover various facets of the cannabis culture.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Courtesy of Chris Allport's The Leaf.

Courtesy of Chris Allport's The Leaf.

There is one at every party. It seems that just about the time the second joint starts getting passed around the room, the girlfriend of the guy that nobody really wanted there in the first place goes quiet. Her situation is a little suspect, as everyone notices that she keeps feeling her chest from time to time. But the consensus is that as long as the “friendlies” are still having fun, all is well and good in the world.

Then the dab machine comes out. That’s when the quiet girl, despite knowing deep down inside that she is having some difficulty keeping up with the group’s rotation, decides she is going to try smoking high-powered concentrates for the first time.

Although the boyfriend protests, the cheers from the others around the room are enough to convince her to go for it. They will soon regret offering this level of encouragement. As soon as she blows out the hit, she looks as though she has been shot in the heart at close range. Not only is she gripping her chest like Fred Sanford in one of his "I'm coming to Georgia" moments, but her breathing is rapid and shallow and she’s got this look on her face of someone who is convinced that they are about to meet their maker.

Some of the other girls try to help calm her down a little, while the less sympathetic of the group sit back and laugh, spouting off things like “I remember the first time I smoked weed.” It’s all fun and games until the girl’s cannabis-induced panic attack erupts into a full-blown spectacle of terror and she does everything but tear down the living room walls trying to get some fresh air. It is at that point when she starts belting out a cornucopia of strange, colorful obscenities and begging for someone, anyone to call 911.

But is summoning emergency assistance the right move in this situation?

The short answer is no. Depending on which state a person lives in, calling in the cavalry (Police, Fire Department and EMT’s) when someone starts flipping out after consuming too much marijuana can bring nothing but trouble. Sure, there are a handful of states where cannabis is perfectly legal for adults 21 and older, but there are still plenty of jurisdictions in the United States where pot possession is a one-way ticket to jail.

And since it is impossible to die from a marijuana overdose, and the herb cannot cause any damage to a person’s internal organs, calling 911 for a THC terror trip is really just a waste of time.

But sometimes those ever-so-popular cannabis freak-outs and subsequent calls to 911 can lead to hilarity. At least it did in the case of Chris Allport, a comedy writer from Portland, Oregon. He just released an album entitled Anxious Rapper that he hopes will raise awareness for anxiety disorders through a comedic lens. His video for the song The Leaf, which is a first person account of the time he called 911 following a cannabis-induced panic attack, has left the Internet in stitches. You can (and need to) watch his insanely funny, NSFW video below.

Allport, who also works as an Associate Producer on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, told Forbes that he thought he was having a heart attack after smoking weed for the first time. Fortunately, after going through a rather tumotulous experience in an upstairs bathroom, which included a life-or-death battle with a dry tongue, he was lucky enough to reach a 911 dispatcher who understood exactly what he was going through.